Political video reveals Dem. free-speech hypocrisy

by John Klar

A recent video made with Artificial Intelligence (AI) satirizing Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint has sparked indignant hostility from the self-styled “Scrappy Little Dyke.”  Vermont’s rabidly left-wing Attorney General Charity Clark applied a sketchy new Vermont law to investigate the video’s creator, prompting a federal lawsuit.  Charity and Becca both care far more about the free speech of criminals and immigrants than they do the political expressions of Vermonters.  Ironically, that’s the video’s core message!

AI Video Condemns Socialist Thievery

The offending video portrays Balint as a scowling carpetbagger, insensitive to Vermont’s farmers and working class.  Presaging anti-socialist themes likely to dominate conservative messaging through the nation’s midterms, the AI simulation of an arrogant, beret-sporting Balint mocks the Marxist playbook of elitists feigning social angst while milking the middle class.  Standing before the Vermont statehouse, AI Balint declares, “Vermont is my state. I decide what’s going to happen.  Your tax money is spent, and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me.” 

Onto the scene comes Vermont logger and would-be Balint challenger Mark Coester, depicted in his AI incarnation operating a large yellow backhoe that scoops up an arm-flailing Balint and deposits her in a dumpster.  Says Coester, “Vermont is for Americans, not radical communists!”  

Comrade Balint was none too pleased, promptly complaining about the parody:

“This ad is offensive and a dangerous example of what happens when AI is used to deceive voters…. Fabricating my voice and image to put words in my mouth is a new low. Free speech is a cornerstone of our democracy, but impersonation and deception are not.” 

Impersonation is the cornerstone of political satire, which has long lampooned the decadence, fraud, and waste of the ruling classes.  Going back to the Greeks (Aristophanes) and Romans (Juvenal) and inspiring amusing luminaries such as Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, and America’s beloved Mark Twain, satire has positively influenced culture, politics, and social policy for thousands of years.  Will Ferrell has many times mimicked George Bush’s voice and image and “put words in his mouth” – no one is any more deceived that Mark Coester actually tipped Balint into a bin than they were that Ferrell was actually Bush when he roasted POTUS George W. 

Democrats Pervert Free Speech

As a sworn member of Congress, Becca Balint has undertaken to respect and uphold the laws of the land.  Instead, she is abusing her office in derogation of long-protected speech rights.  Fortunately, the US Supreme Court has firmly established protective boundaries for political speech under the First Amendment. 

As Justice Kennedy opined in Citizens United v FEC: 

“The First Amendment underwrites the freedom to experiment and to create in the realm of thought and speech. Citizens must be free to use new forms, and new forums, for the expression of ideas. The civic discourse belongs to the people, and the Government may not prescribe the means used to conduct it.”

Justice Kennedy recalled the example of a new technology used for political satire in 1939, when the classic political comedy Mr. Smith Goes to Washington premiered.  Most of the US Senate and nearly half of the House attended the gala showing.  Many congresspeople, much like Becca Balint today, were unamused.  Time reported, in 1939:

“Next day there was a great rubbing of sore heads on Capitol Hill. Senators charged the picture lowered the Senate’s dignity. Three Senators (who declined to be quoted) upheld Senatorial dignity with these pungent comments on the film: “Not all Senators are [SOBs].” “Punk!” “It stinks!”  

….Said Senator Norris: “. . . . The movies had a chance to do a good job, but they have given the public only a false, absurd impression.”

That is Becca Balint’s anti-AI argument now – that the public will be deceived by satire that she deems diminishes her Scrappy Little Dignity.  But Becca has not been very straight with the public.  She has called for free speech for foreigners or criminals, while opposing it for Vermont voters.

Balint’s Misinformation Pattern

Becca Balint co-sponsored a bill called the Land of the Free Act to “repeal Trump power targeting free speech,” which would protect the so-called “right” of foreigners visiting the US on green cards to condemn the country and foment treason.  The immigration laws restricting hostile speech by green card holders precedes the Trump administration.  It has been correctly applied to review the immigration status of green card holders spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric and radical calls for violence on US campuses (aka “hate speech”).  Those who hate the Land of the Free do not possess the right to seek its destruction, yet Becca Balint ignores the roots of the law while misinforming Americans that it is some sort of Trump attack on their liberties.  She defends non-citizen America-haters “who are exercising their constitutionally protected right to free speech.”  No, they aren’t – that right is subject to a longstanding immigration law that legally restricts their hate America speech.  Honesty is not Becca Balint’s strong suit.

Similarly, Balint has been denouncing Donald Trump for investigations of New York Times reporters who disclosed to the world that the President’s new plane is less secure than the previous Air Force One.  Balint portrays this as an attack on the free press, which she says should report on wasted tax dollars.  But she deliberately avoids mentioning that the federal investigation stems from an illegal leak of top-secret military content that put a sitting US POTUS at risk of assassination.  Balint deceives voters about the law and context of the federal investigation, deliberately misinforming the public (no AI required!). 

Wait – isn’t “deception” exactly what Balint is condemning the AI video for doing, when in fact it deceived no one and well captured many Vermonters’ growing sense that Becca and her scrappy progressive ilk are bilking Vermonters into poverty on the crocodile tears of helping the poor?  The video condemns classic socialist thievery, and Becca doesn’t like it being called out while she blames Vermont’s “affordability crisis” on Donald Trump.

Vermont’s AG Charity Clark never met a lawsuit against the Trump administration she didn’t like, and blocks federal authorities to assist illegals and criminals at the expense of Vermonters’ safety. Clark quickly launched a so-called investigation into the Balint video’s creator, a US veteran named Hank Poitras, implying he could be criminally charged for issuing the AI pastiche in violation of a new Vermont anti-AI statute. However, the statute by its terms only applies where content “appears to a reasonable person to be a realistic representation of” a political candidate, and specifically excludes “synthetic media constituting satire or parody.” 

A Scrappy Little Indictment?

No one with half a logical brain can reasonably believe the subject video actually depicts Balint, let alone that it is not satire. Poitras has sued the state of Vermont for this blatant left-wing infringement on conservative Vermonters’ rights of political speech. The very fact that Clark investigated this video is an indictment of the statute’s vagueness and facial unconstitutionality. Vermont authorities must not be allowed to chill political voices, most especially satirical attempts to expose the fraud and lies being spewed by progressive socialists like Becca Balint.  

It is difficult to discern a difference in public welfare between Rich Little’s iconic impersonation of Richard Nixon, or Tina Fey’s not-very-flattering portrayal of Sarah Palin, and an AI version of those same comedy sketches. The whole point of satire from time in memoriam has been to inflate or exaggerate the behavior or policies of rulers or government officials to critique or call for reform. Jonathan Swift was not literally calling for people to dine on infant stew in A Modest Proposal: an AI version of that perverse essay would be no different.  

Becca Balint and Charity Clark have hypocritically indicted themselves. Hank Poitras will win his challenge, preserving the political liberties that Americans have long enjoyed despite persistent Democratic efforts to punish “misinformation” while spewing it endlessly themselves. 

Author and attorney John Klar raises grass-fed beef in Vermont.  His Substack is called Small Farm Republic. John is a staff writer at Liberty Nation News and a contributor to The MAHA Report on Substack. John’s recent book is titled The Coming Food Crisis: How Corporations, Activists, and Climate Alarmists Are Waging War on Farmers